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The topic of this event was how to apply case study methodology to public policy, both in teaching and research. The speaker, Mr. Carlos Alza Barco is a Lecturer in Public Policy Analysis and Public Management at La Católica University (PUCP) in Lima, Peru.

Mr. Alza identified two main problems of teaching public policy. The first is theoretical; scholars focus on structures and institutions rather than decisions and implementation. Public policy should not be considered or indeed taught and studied as a plan that is carried out within a structure but rather as a complex set of decisions. Studying the static institutions and structures are of course important, they are the environments in which the processes occur, but "practices build processes" as Mr. Alza stated. It is the policy practices, i.e. the actions of public officials that must be scrutinized to really comprehend public policy.

The second problem Mr. Alza identified is a practical one. The academic study of public policy is often far removed from reality. Mr. Alza is currently completing a PhD in Political Science at PUCP drawing on more than 10 years of experience as a public official in the National Human Rights Ombudsman Office.  He is convincingly bridging the gap between academia and practice and is incorporating his work experience into his teaching to give students a more realistic as opposed to purely theoretical approach to public policy. He is also teaching one of the first courses in Peru on policy implementation, emphasizing what an obscure area this practical aspect of public policy still is in the theory-filled policy studies of academia.

Mr. Alza also had some very useful points on the value of using case study methodology or 'casing' in political science research. Casing can be used to identify theoretical practices and research questions. This methodology is instrumental in that it provides evidence about something theoretically important for academia and practitioners. Case studies also have intrinsic value: cases are valuable and relevant as experiences in themselves. For wider applicability, however, students working with casing must focus on the cases' instrumental value.

His advice on structuring case studies is not to fall into a trap of simply writing a chronology of events. Rather, casing "is an understanding of decision-making processes". Casing should be thought of as focusing on one episode within a story. This episode must have a set time-period. It can be useful to write a preparatory chronology for the research in order to identify the time-frame of the case and identify the salient issues directly important to the theoretical question identified by the researcher.